Progressive Enterprises operates 52 stores in Auckland, so a drop in sales in the region was a serious issue. Whether ongoing rebranding to new-generation Countdown stores, a simultaneous programme of inconvenient refurbishments or increasingly cut-throat competition was to blame, a solution needed to be found.

Individual shopping patterns, transaction by transaction, were examined across a 16 week period to find which customer segments had changed behaviour. Interestingly, one store’s 7% downturn was primarily attributed to a change in shopping patterns in a mere 763 households, with 63% of these in the same attitudinal shopping segment.
Above-the-line media was adjusted, underpinned by a dedicated email campaign targeting each store’s catchment.

The results show an outstanding example of insightful data analytics being swiftly applied to a significant business issue. The analytics were conducted and marketing implemented in two weeks. Within four weeks of intervention, sales in one of the two specific stores had returned to year-on-year growth and at the other store sustained 7.5% year-on-year growth levels were achieved.

The addition of email for store level marketing produced a 402% return on investment.